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3D-AFM: Enhanced 3D sensitivity

PTB-News 1.2019
08.02.2019
Especially interesting for

manufacturers of scanning force microscopes (AFMs)

manufacturers of microscope equipment

One of the new designs that ensure a well-balanced relation of the stiffness: a modified cantilever with cut-outs in the beam.

Today, atomic force microscopy (AFM) is faced with the challenge of measuring 3D structures reliably. State-of-theart 3D measurements have been prone to errors since commercially available cantilevers (i.e. the measuring pins used in an AFM) do not react equally when exposed to forces from three spatial dimensions. At PTB, this problem has been successfully addressed by developing new cantilevers. These newly structured cantilevers react more sensitively to 3D influences, and they no longer tend to slip when scanning slopes that are not equally steep. (Technology Offer 476)

Advantages

enhanced sensitivity with nearly isotropic stiffness

real 3D probing by means of flexible hinges

can be integrated into existing atomic force microscopes

Contact person for questions about technology transfer

Andreas Barthel, Phone: +49 531 592-8307, Opens window for sending emailandreas.barthel(at)ptb.de, Opens internal link in current windowwww.technologietransfer.ptb.de/en